Gaza’sโฃ Civil Defense Crews โRace against Time to Recover Thousands of Bodies trappedโข Under Rubble
GAZA CITY – As a temporary ceasefire continues, Gaza’s Civil Defense โforces are engaged in the harrowing โฃtask โof recovering an estimatedโข 10,000 bodies from the wreckage of Israeli โairstrikes,โฃ according to rescuers on the ground. The scale of the devastation, compounded by weeks of relentless bombardment, hasโข created a crisis within a crisis, with teams struggling to locate and identifyโ victims while simultaneously responding to โongoing emergencies.
The unprecedented โnumberโค of casualties and the sheer volume of debris pose โimmense challenges. Rescue workers, often operating with โlimited equipment and โขfacing constantโค risk, are receiving a relentless stream of calls from families desperate to find loved ones and retrieveโค remains for proper burial. The ongoing โeffort underscores the immenseโ human cost ofโ the โขconflict and the long-term trauma facing Gazan communities. The ceasefire offers โคa critical, though โขtemporary, window to address this โurgent need, but the task is expected to take months, evenโข years, to complete.
“It was unbearable,” โsaid rescue worker Khammash,โ speaking to The Intercept about the loss of his brother, who โwas a year younger. “Myโ brother was not only my sibling – he was my โclosest freindโฆ We โshared โฃeverything, โคunderstood eachโ other without speaking. We went everywhere together. That kind of loss โคnever leaves โyou, and theโข separation is โฃthe hardest pain.”
The Civil Defense teams areโ responding to reports of smells, pleas forโข help โfrom families, and collapsing structures. “Deathโ surrounds us,” Khammash stated. “Maybe โคwe are the next ones. We accept โAllah’s plan, but โขstill – insideโ us – we love life.”
Recent missions during the ceasefire have included the rescue of โa woman trapped beneathโข a collapsed tower in the al-Rimal neighborhood. Rescuers locatedโฃ her by voice alone in pitch darkness, discovering she was directly beneath a rescuer’s โfoot. Another prolonged operation involvedโค the recoveryโ of Marah al-Haddad,a girlโ trapped for a โmonth under rubble in the al-Daraj area. โฃ
“She was alive when we reachedโ her,” Khammash recounted. “She had been breathing dust andโค explosives. My colleague Abdullahโข al-majdalawi and I kept calling, ‘Where โare you, Marah?’ And she answered, ‘I’m here. I’m here.'”
He added, “When she sawโ us, hope cameโฃ back to her face. To โขbring someone โback from death – this is โwhat keeps us going.” Khammash echoed a sentimentโข shared by many within โthe Civil Defense: a commitment to recovery driven by faith and a profound respect for life, even amidst overwhelming deathโ andโค destruction.
